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AWC Publications-Related Courses

BCD303-A – Residential Wood Deck Design

Deck and balcony collapses injure occupants every year. It is estimated that over 40 million decks in the US are more than 20 years old, meaning they were constructed before today’s building codes and established best practices. To encourage compliant deck design and construction, American Wood Council (AWC) has published Design for Code Acceptance No. 6 – Prescriptive Residential Wood Deck Construction Guide (DCA 6) which may be downloaded from the AWC website here http://awc.org/codes-standards/publications/dca6 Requirements of the 2012 International Residential Code and other provisions are reflected in this document. This article highlights certain engineering topics related to DCA 6 and provides some background for those issues.

Learning Objectives:

After reading this article, you will:

Understand the scope and limitations of DCA 6

Become familiar with the types of decks covered by DCA 6 and their differences

Become familiar with minimum sizing requirements for various deck structural elements

Understand the types of loads residential decks are designed to resist